Exploring the Experience of Existential Anxiety During the COVID-19 Isolation Period in a Small Sample of Young Kosovar Adults

Abstract

International literature has documented the mental health impact of the coronavirus 2019 pandemic on global communities. However, for this period, a significant lack of research exists on the human and psychological experiences of Albanian Kosovars. This study aimed to retrospectively explore a specific experience associated with the isolation period, that is, the Kosovar young adults’ experience of existential anxiety. The notion of isolation is significant for the Kosovars as their country is recently independent with some referencing its political isolation in the European context. The current study was conducted from March to June 2022; Stage 1 included a quantitative sampling of existential anxiety among 115 Albanian Kosovars through the Existential Anxiety Questionnaire (Weems et al., 2004). In Stage 2, five participants with high levels of existential anxiety partook in in-depth interviews. For the qualitative analysis, the Existential Phenomenological Research approach was adopted. Using Paul Tillich’s existential anxiety framework, results revealed that this study’s participants experienced great losses with the start of the lockdown as they were students who had to return to their families. It appears that a process of transformation occurred in light of the hardships that individuals experienced. Implications for mental health practitioners and researchers are offered.